S.C.B.L
The Southern California Baseball League, more commonly known as just S.C.B.L, is a professional baseball league located exclusively in southern California, in the Los Angeles as well as San Diego metropolitan areas. The league contains sixteen teams. Teams American Division * Valencia Vipers * Long Beach Dolphins * Beverly Hillbillies * Pasadena Predators * Garden Grove Gauntlets * Buena Park Pixies * El Cajun Boilers * Compton Sixty-Fours National Division * San Bernadino Rednecks * Ocean Side Orcas * Skyler City Ovens * Santa Clarita Coal Givers * Chula Vista Chihuahuas * Santa Ana Jaguars * Temecula Tigers * Ontario Mobiles Differences with MLB The S.C.B.L, though considered a professional baseball league, has no affiliation with Major League Baseball. It does, however, borrow some of its rules from Major League Baseball. All teams, regardless of their division, play by the MLB's National League rules in that there are no designated hitters in the S.C.B.L. Instead, the pitchers must either appear at bat or be substituted with a pinch hitter. Also in the S.C.B.L, a catcher may not block home plate unless he holds the baseball. A runner headed for home plate will be considered safe by the home plate umpire if home plate is illegally blocked. This was a rule put into effect by MLB in 2014. While MLB assigns four umpires in a game, six in the postseason, the S.C.B.L has a two umpire format: one stands behind home plate while the other at the bases. The umpire assigned at the bases must run around the bases to the nearest play to make a call. For postseason games, there are four umpires: the two additional umpires watch along the foul line, just like the additional ones in MLB. Thus, there is always just one umpire at the bases, whether in regular or postseason. The S.C.B.L postseason format is quite different from MLB's, being divided into two distinct phases. For the first phase, the top team from each of the two divisions are automatically entered into main bracket (i.e they bypass phase 1 entirely). The 2nd and 3rd place teams from each division face each other in a winner-take-all game to move on (the 2nd place team, naturally higher up than the 3rd, always have home field advantage). This brings the total to four teams. To add one more team, the top remaining teams from each division play each other in a best of five series. The winning team takes the fifth and final spot to move on. Once all five teams have been determined, its time for phase 2 of the postseason. The team with the highest record of the five automatically moves on into round 2. The remaining four teams battle out in round 1 for additional slots in round 2. The two winning teams advance while the two losing teams face off in a winner-take-all game. After this, the bracket holds four teams. From here on, the teams simply play in a 4 team bracket in a best of five series. The winners from each series face off in the finals. Similar to the leagues in MLB and the World Series bracket, there is always one team in the finals from the American Division and one from the National: there are never two from the same division. While the four team bracket consisted of two best of five series, the finals are instead best of seven, like the World Series. The winning team is, of course, champions.